Pope resignation timing explanation: Thank you, Rhode Island judge. Papal papers unsealed friday.

[John1956PA]

75. Lindy and Dan, you raise great points and questions.

As I understand it, the Vatican prefers priests to operate within the traditional church structure of bishop-governed dioceses. Existing outside of said traditional diocese structure are certain religious orders of nuns and priests who have their own governing bodies. Most of those religious orders meet with the approval of the Vatican which probably receives from each of them agreed-upon tithes.

Occasionally, there comes along a priest who is not attached to a diocese or a religious order and who begins a ministry to a segment of the populace having needs or desires which are not being filled by the diocese or by the existing religious orders. Gradually, the ministry takes on the characteristics of a religious order. The people who are ministered to by the order may be indigent, or they may have been disenfranchised by society. Sometimes, the people who are being ministered to by the order are well off and hold particular religious tenants (think Opus Dei) which are of a devotional nature.

It is my impression that, if an upstart order demonstrates that it has influence and the ability to garner financial support, the Vatican will take notice of it and try to reach an agreement with its leaders. For the order to receive the support of the Vatican, the order would have to obey church teaching.

It is my impression that, as the Legion of Christ gained popularity and financial patronage, its leaders and the Vatican reached an agreement by which the Vatican gave its approval to the order and began receiving tithes from it. At some point, the Vatican learned that the order’s founder, priest Marcial Maciel Degollado, fathered at least one child and was accused of sexual misconduct with teenage males. As mentioned above, the Vatican disciplined Degollado in 2006, and he died in 2008.

With regard to the unsealed records in the Rhode Island case, we may learn if and when the Vatican sent communications to the order addressing the misconduct allegations which had surfaced against Degollado. At this point, it is not clear if Degollado has ever been accused of sexual abuse of teenage males during any period in which the Vatican had already possessed knowledge of prior accusations against him.

As for the relevance of the foregoing to the Rhode Island case, the plaintiff (a niece of the wealthy benefactor) is trying to prove that the order concealed from the benefactor the fact that Degollado had fathered one or more children and that he had been accused of sexual abuse of teenage boys. The plaintiff believes that, if the fathering fact alone had been told to the benefactor, she would have viewed the order (which extols chastity among women) as hypocritical, and she would have directed her money to worthier beneficiaries.